Cuomo: Ban public-aid cards at casinos, liquor stores

11:34 PM,
Jan. 26, 2014

Written by

Ashley Hupfl
| Albany Bureau

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget plan would make it a punishable offense to withdraw welfare money at a strip club, liquor store or casino.

The proposal would ban Electronic Benefits Transfer cards, or EBT, from being used at the prohibited venues, with a punishment system both for welfare recipients and the establishments that allow them to be used. It would put the state in compliance with the federal Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, which extended certain federally funded benefits but required the state to clamp down on fraud.